1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein generally relate to methods and systems for generating seismic waves and the mitigation of seismic noise artifacts due to intermodulation distortion (IMD) that may be present in the recorded data.
2. Discussion of the Background
Land seismic data acquisition and processing may be used to generate a profile (image) of the geophysical structure under the ground (subsurface). While this profile does not provide an accurate location for oil and gas reservoirs, it suggests, to those trained in the field, the presence or absence of such reservoirs. Thus, providing a high-resolution image of the subsurface is important, for example, to those who need to determine whether the oil and gas reservoirs are located.
Geophysical prospectors generate seismic waves in order to probe the subsurface (e.g., for imaging the earth). These acoustic waves may be generated from an explosive, implosive, impulsive, or a vibratory source executing swept-frequency (chirp) or random sequence. A recording of the acoustic reflection and refraction wavefronts that travel from the source to a receiver are used to produce a seismic field record. Variations in the travel times of the reflection events in these field records indicate the position of reflection and/or refraction surfaces within the earth.
IMD distortion results from the modulation of signals containing two or more different frequencies in a non-linear system. The non-linear system of particular concern is the earth coupling and the two or more different frequencies may be (i) the frequency emitted by the source and (ii) harmonics of the same frequency. The intermodulation between each frequency component will form additional signals at frequencies that are not just at harmonic frequencies (integer multiples) of either, but also at the sum and difference frequencies of the original frequencies. There are other nonlinear mechanisms in the vibrator itself that produce IMD distortion products, but since these effects are included in the measured ground force signal, they are incorporated into the source signature signal so that their distortion artifacts can be mitigated directly by performing a source signature deconvolution as a data processing step.
A swept-frequency or chirp type seismic source may use a long pilot signal such as 2 to 64 seconds to ensure sufficient energy is imparted to the earth. With a swept frequency type source, the energy is emitted in the form of a sweep of regularly increasing (upsweep) or decreasing (downsweep) frequency in the seismic frequency range. The vibrations of the source are controlled by a control system, which can control the frequency and phase of the seismic signals. These sources are low energy and, thus, this causes noise problems that may affect the recorded seismic data. For example, the source generated harmonic energy may be an additional source of energy manifesting as noise, distortion or interference with recorded data. Generally for chirps, the source emits only one frequency at a time and its harmonics, so nonlinear coupling effects in the earth will result in noise that is indistinguishable from harmonic noise. With vibrator rocking, usually front to back or side to side, sub-harmonic energy can also be produced and any IMD products between sub-harmonics, fundamental or harmonics are also indistinguishable from sub-harmonic noise and its multiples. One exception is due to amplitude tapers that are generally applied at the start and end of a chirp. The taper intervals are usually between 100 to 1000 ms in duration. During the amplitude taper at the beginning or end of a chirp, the reference contains more than one frequency due to the amplitude modulation of the chirp signal. Thus, there is some potential for IMD production during taper intervals since more than two frequencies, which are not harmonics or sub-harmonics of one another, are simultaneously generated and when the vibrator output signal enters the nonlinear coupling, IMD seismic waves are emitted in addition to fundamental, harmonic and sub-harmonic waves.
A bigger problem is in the case when pseudorandom sequences are employed. The temporal frequency content of random signals is rich in spectral diversity, i.e., many frequencies are generated simultaneously. Thus, the potential for IMD noise interference in seismic records is much greater when pseudorandom sequences are used. In correlated shot records, the IMD noise is most evident on near offset traces (these correspond to receivers close to a vibrator). The IMD noise that is seen in correlated shot gathers is primarily linked to strong arrival events like first break events and surface waves.
Therefore, there are instances when vibratory sources may generate harmonics, sub-harmonics and IMD noise which can cross-feed with signals from other sources, giving misleading results when the signals are processed to separate the signals from each source. In addition, the harmonics are a source of noise that can mask weak reflection signals from deeper layers.
Currently, for reducing the seismic survey time, multiple sources are deployed at close locations and are actuated simultaneously, thus, reducing the time necessary to complete the survey. However, using multiple sources at the same time only increase the IMD noise. Multiple sources may be used if some means for distinguishing between signals emanating from the different sources can be provided. There are various methods for reducing the harmonic noise and cross-feed but none is capable of addressing related noises, e.g., subharmonic and/or IMD noise.
Thus, there is a need to develop a method, a source and/or a seismic survey system that is capable of imparting energy to the earth in such a way that IMD noise may be mitigated.